Dear Future Husband

18. Do I Know You?

1 July 1889

One minute, Maximilian Walker was strolling peacefully along the walkway. In the next minute, he felt a hand seize his jacket and pull him back. Fighting against the man's grip, he struggled, seizing and squirming.

"Hey!" Lee was shouting something incomprehensible at the man in Cantonese. The few words Maximilian could pick out were something about rice and someone's mother, which did not seem appropriate to repeat in public. "What do you want with my friend? Put him down at once!"

The man was yelling back, finally allowing Maximilian to be released from his grasp. When he heard the cruelty in his voice, his blood ran cold. "Your friend stole something very important from me."

"Well, whatever it is, simply allow him the opportunity to return it and this matter can be resolved without force," Lee replied in a calmer tone, his hands by his sides.

Maximilian stumbled forward, rubbing the nape of his neck as he spun around to see the man's face. "Do I know you?"

He smiled, revealing yellowed teeth with tobacco stains on them. "No, but I am very familiar with you, boy."

"Do you know an Edgar Wakefield?" he probed, wondering if this was one of the goons who had been sent to track him even across the ocean. Then again, why could Edgar possibly hate him so much? He was only a poor orphaned boy, no one of great importance. Why did it matter to the man where he went or what he did, aside from Maximilian's effects on his chequebook? "Are you familiar with the man? Why did you leave me that note?"

"Ah, what an intelligent young man. The note... Well, that was to pique your interest. All young boys have a natural curiosity for ominous letters. And yes, Edgar Wakefield is behind this. You must realize you owe him a debt." The man folded his wiry arms across his hard chest. He had a lean, hungry look to him, like that of a criminal, his sunburnt face peeling at the nose beneath his worn-out hat. "And you must also know that one needs to pay their debts."

Lee frowned. "Max, what is this gentleman talking about?"

"I... I have no idea." His mouth was so dry that speaking became a difficulty. Would his life be nothing but a long series of chases and mishaps from one trouble to another, forever looking over his shoulder for one original crime? "I'm afraid that I am not aware of this debt you speak of."

People bustled around them, jostling his shoulders. The man took a step closer to be heard, his foul breath reaching Maximilian's nose. "You stole valuable cargo from my employer, and you won't even admit it?"

"My goodness, could you please simply tell us what you believe my friend stole?" Lee slung an arm around Max's shoulders.

"A very precious thing," murmured the man, pulling a switchblade from his pocket. Maximilian tried to jerk back in horror as he flicked it open. Would nobody in the crowd see this grown man threatening them and come to their aid? But there was no kindly Lord Winthrop to save them now. "And my employer intends to be reimbursed."

"I must say, I thought the Wakefields were far too respectable to associate with or even employ the likes of you," Maximilian said, his voice shaking a bit as he stumbled backwards. He caught sight of that tattoo on the man's wrist once more: a circle with a slash through it. "I see they're not above hiring riffraff."

"My boy, do you think we are not the same?" The man chuckled. "I assure you, I am closer to the likes of you than you could ever realize."

"I must say, if that is the case, please do not wave that weapon in my face as you do," Max suggested with a tremor in his voice. He fought to keep it steady, to keep his pulse from racing away like a frightened racehorse. "I must admit that it is quite alarming."

"Listen here, boy, I haven't the time to battle wits with you. Tell me where the treasure is and this can all be solved!" The tenor of his voice rose into an angered holler, spraying spittle onto their faces. Lee wiped it away with a handkerchief and a disgusted moue.

"If you had half a wit to battle with," Max said lowly, unsure of where his newfound confidence was coming from but terrified that it might land him into hot water, "I might find it easier to spar. As it is, this treasure you speak of is entirely foreign to me."

A bang across the square alerted all their attentions, diverting them from the current moment to a far more pressing matter. Someone had fired a revolver. The man with the knife quickly darted away, his thin legs carrying him as fast as they could. Lee and Maximilian turned to watch the scene play out, half-filled with morbid curiosity and half-filled with the desire for a distraction from his own present danger.

"No!" A native woman was wailing, her eyes filled with tears. Her broken English was made worse by the veil of sorrow that shrouded her. "Please, I love him."

"Well, if he loved you, he would leave you alone! There is no future for you here." An older man who looked like her father replied, his arms folded across his chest as he gazed at her with a stern look. She knelt over a young man's body.

An Englishman was bleeding out on the ground and a crowd had formed around the three of them. There was even a vendor passing out bags of shelled peanuts. A number of people were gathered around, squatting and eating peanuts as though one young woman's love affair were a play at the theatre, to be enjoyed and dissected and entertained.

"Lily..." he could hear the man murmur, his injured arm reaching for the girl. "Please."

Kissing the back of her hand, he lay still, his breathing shallow as he clearly lay in pain. A pool of blood was gradually forming around his body, staining the hem of the woman's skirt.

Ever the skeptic, the father looked like he wanted to shoot the man in his other arm. "You cannot marry my daughter."

"Really?" The young man's voice was hoarse. "Why is that? It certainly is not illegal."

Rosalie's face suddenly floated before him in his mind. If he were to ever ask for her hand in marriage, how would Lord Winthrop react? It was one thing to give an orphan charity and quite another matter entirely to allow him to marry one's daughter. Of course, he was clearly far too ahead of himself. The chances were that he would never even see Rosalie again.

"Oh, how naive you are," the father said slowly. "If you married her, you would take her away from everything she's ever known. I am trying to protect my daughter and her happiness."

Shadows passed over them as a cloud enveloped the sun. Suddenly cold, Maximilian shivered, rubbing his hands over his arms. He turned to Lee. "Come on, let us go. I would prefer not to stick around in case the man with the knife returns."

A look of shock and horror had passed over Lee's face, however. "We cannot. That woman is my sister-in-law!"

Lily was bent sobbing over the young man's body. Lee's eyes were fixed on her with a single-minded intensity as he pushed through the masses of people.

Maximilian sighed and followed Lee into the fray.

After a few hours, the matter was cleared up. The woman was not Lee's sister-in-law, whom he had so disliked for her secrecy about her true family, but it was her twin. Lee's sister-in-law had deliberately hidden her family from Lee's brother because her sister was entangled with a foreigner. Upon hearing the news, Lee's father was extremely upset, but there was also nothing to be done as his son was already married. However, it did not exactly endear Lee's sister-in-law to him.

Now, Maximilian sat on the curved rooftop of Lee's family house, staring out into the distance. Pagodas and houses sat below the skyline, allowing him an unobstructed view of the moon and stars that glittered above. The day had been long and exhausting. All that he wanted the most was to collapse into a warm bed in a loving home and with a full belly. Did even stray dogs have the things he desired?

"God," he said softly, unsure of what else to say. "Our Father who art in heaven..."

But the rote words felt stale. They didn't reflect his emotional state or even his spiritual one. So he began again. "God, I pray that You are keeping Rosalie safe and happy and that you are protecting Lord Winthrop from the evil Edgar Sterling. Please help Aunt Caro and her husband, Gideon, not to be too worried about me..." His voice broke at the thought of them. "I pray that Daisy does not miss me too much... God, if You are real... Please, help me."